


Golden Eyes in the Dark

by BinJLG



Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms, Phantom - Susan Kay, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Fear, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Madeleine is only mentioned, Young Erik, child erik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:48:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23625652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BinJLG/pseuds/BinJLG
Summary: Young Erik gets some help in realizing his worst nightmare.
Kudos: 4





	Golden Eyes in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this fic in 2014 (according to the file's metadata), but I can't remember for what. It might have been for a fic exchange? I just found it again and decided to post it after touching it up a bit. This is set in Kay's version of Erik's childhood, but I don't think you need to have read Kay's fic in order to know what's going on in this one (if I'm wrong, please leave a comment and let me know).

Little Erik woke thrashing and screaming for the third time this week. Once his eyes adjusted to the dim, pale moonlight, he became aware of his surroundings. He was in his room, tangled in his own blankets, tears running down his flushed face. His small hand flew to his face and a wave of panic swept through him. His mask was gone! He quickly shut his eyes and groped for it frantically.

Three months had gone by since his fifth birthday. Since his mother had punished him for his selfishness and his disobedience by showing him _the face_. Erik knew his mother could be cruel, but that… He shuddered and cringed at the memory of it, his tears falling heavier when he realized his mask was nowhere on his bed.

Erik lay there for a moment wrapped in anxiety. Calling for his mother would do no good. She had stopped responding to his nightmares only two weeks after what happened. Even if he did call for her, he knew she would scold him for not wearing his mask. Or worse, she would show _it_ to him again. He didn't want to open his eyes, though, for fear that _it_ would find him even without the provocation of his mother. _It_ probably knew when he wasn't wearing the mask. Anything that horrible had to have secret knowledge like that. However, the longer Erik lay there with his face exposed, the more opportunity _it_ had to come after him and snatch him up like in his dreams. Bottom lip quivering, Erik steeled himself and opened his eyes.

Trembling from fear and anticipation, Erik peered over the edge of his bed and saw half of his mask peeking out at him from underneath it. He frantically picked it up and placed it back on his face where it belonged, letting out a sigh of relief. It was only when he finished adjusting it did he notice the figure standing in the corner of his room.

Erik hardly dared to breathe as he watched the man. He was tall with slicked back dark hair and a long dark coat. The pallor of his skin seemed off to the young boy, even in the dim light. He was muttering to himself and working with what looked to be floating gold sand. Erik watch, perplexed and amazed, as the man swirled the small amount before him, the sand streaking with black and slowly spreading outward until it melded with the darkness.

"Are you a magician, monsieur?" Erik asked, his eyes wide with wonder. The man started and Erik heard the sand hit the floor. The man stared at the child, his pale golden eyes wide and his jaw slack.

"Can– Can you see me?" he asked.

Erik swallowed. The man had the same golden eyes as _the face_. This man did not look monstrous, but those eyes couldn’t merely be a coincidence, could they? Erik attempted to put up a brave front, not wanting to seem rude in case he really didn’t have anything to do with _it._

"Of course I can see you, monsieur."

The dark man's eyes scanned over the child quickly for a moment before his expression settled into a mask of cool neutrality. "What is your name?"

"Erik," the young boy replied warily. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of this late night intruder. Something about the man made him anxious, but there was also something else. Something almost strangely comforting about him. "May I ask yours?"

"Tell me, Erik," the man said, squaring his shoulders back and drawing nearer to the bed. "Do you believe in the Boogeyman?"

Erik hesitated and looked down at his hands, fiddling anxiously with them. He knew believing in monsters was nothing but childish nonsense, but ever since his mother had shown him _the face_ …

Erik raised his eyes to stare wide with apprehension at the man and his golden eyes. A cold terror swept through his stomach as his mind leapt to the only reasonable conclusion. "Do you work for _it_ , monsieur?"

The man grinned wickedly, revealing two rows of pointed teeth and Erik shuddered. "What? Do you mean that face? The one your mother showed you those months ago? That you see every night in your nightmares? he one that you think will come back if you aren't wearing your mask like a good little boy like you were just now?"

Erik's bottom lip quivered and he took in a sharp, shaky breath as panic filled his chest. "Please don't tell it, monsieur!! I didn't mean to have it off! It was an accident! Don't let it come back again, please! Please!!"

The man was beside him in an instant, an arm draped around Erik's shoulder. The expression he wore seemed comforting, but there was still a trace of that wicked grin upon his lips.

"There, there, little one. There's no need to fret. You see, I don't control or have anything to do with that wretched little face."

"You don't?" Erik asked, relief washing over him.

"No. The truth behind the face is much more horrible than you could ever imagine, my little darling."

Erik felt all color drain from his face as he stared up at the man in terror. His chest was tight, as if his heart and lungs had stopped working. How could _it_ possibly get any worse? Perhaps it was a type of sentient specter that was watching him even now.

"Perhaps it would be better if I showed you," the man said.

Erik swallowed nervously as the man slid a small mirror from his sleeve and held it in front of them. Or had he conjured it with sand like earlier?

"There's no need to be nervous," the man said coolly, looking at Erik through the glass. "It's just an ordinary hand mirror. Nothing more. See, look, there's me, and there's you."

Erik regarded the mirror skeptically for a moment, then had a chilling realization. His own eyes shown golden behind the mask like the man's. _Like the face's._

"Haven't you ever wondered what you looked like without your mask on, little one?" He asked, the wicked grin fully returning to his lips. Erik shook his head no, a feeling a dread settling in the pit of his stomach. Deep down, some part of him was beginning to comprehend the truth, but he still stubbornly refused to yield to its horror. It wasn't possible. It just wasn't.

"Why don't you lift your mask and have a look?" 

Erik hesitated, then with trembling hands, he reached up and slowly slid the mask from him.

His first instinct was to cry out and reject the reality he had just witnessed. All the young child could do was sit there and stare, though, tears sliding down his hollow cheeks. That horrible face that tormented him every night, that he feared for all these months, was his own. With a cry of rage and disgust, Erik shoved the man’s hand away and hastily set the mask back onto his face. He turned back towards the dark figure, demanding to know why he would show him such a thing, but he was gone.

In the morning, his mother would awake to find the boy's room in shambles with young Erik huddled in the far corner of the room, his sunken eyes swollen and red from a night of crying, repeating nothing but the question, "Why?"


End file.
